Focus Firmly On France

Having featured in all of Ireland’s Rugby World Cup Pool D clashes to date, Munster’s Simon Zebo looks ahead to what will be the men in green’s stiffest challenge thus far when they face France in the Pool decider this Sunday at 4.45pm.

Little separates these northern hemisphere sides as they prepare to do battle in World Rugby’s showpiece tournament. In their last five 6 Nations encounters, Ireland have claimed two victories as opposed to one for the French, with the sides sharing the spoils in consecutive years in 2012 and 2013. Even when one side emerged victorious, not more than a converted try separated them at the full time whistle.

However this weekend, Ireland face Philippe Saint Andre’s men off the back of a less than inspiring win over the Italy on Sunday and the Munster flyer recognises Ireland’s need for a significant step up in performance this weekend

“Silly offloading, errors and knock-ons and things contributed to a bad flow in our attack and just didn’t allow us to gain any momentum against the Italians.

“So we’ll have to correct that this weekend because if the game does open up we’ll have to be able to offload the ball and keep the continuity a lot better than we did last week.

“We just couldn’t get a rhythm going against Italy, so we’ve got to make sure we gain a better flow against France.”

Be it up front or out wide, as always, the French will pose numerous threats across the park, but the Cork-man remains confident in Ireland’s ability to cope with whatever ‘Les Bleus’ throw at them in the Millennium Stadium on Sunday.

“This will be a very physical game I'd say, it will come down to small margins, the little errors will be costly – but if it opens up, then all the better.

"I think we've an extremely talented pack that will give us momentum hopefully, and a great backline to run off it.

"We've all the confidence in our own team to mix it with them if it gets loose.

“But we'll still just make sure we do everything in preparation to be as ready as we can become this weekend.”

With his father hailing from Martinique – an overseas region of France in the eastern Caribbean Sea – the 25 year old admitted his French blood probably does contribute to the attacking flair with which his game has become associated.

“I'd say my background does come into my style of play, my family would be very expressive, and I think you can see it in my personality and my character that I play the way I am behind closed doors.

"So I just go out, try to enjoy myself and execute the skills to try to help the team.

"I've played against France before so the surprise element to it is gone, and my family is the same, but if selected it would be a great occasion to play against my second country.

"I haven't spoken to my dad much this week, but I think he will have his Irish jersey on this weekend!"

Ireland Head Coach Joe Schmidt will name his side to face France on Friday with the versatile back hoping he can win inclusion for his fourth Rugby World Cup appearance.

“Obviously the competition for places is still huge, I was happy to get a run at fullback last week and I think the coaches know what I can do on the wing.

“I’ll just keep working hard in training to keep showing what I can do.”

Ireland v France, 2015 Rugby World Cup Pool D, Sunday October 11^th at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff – KO 4.45pm.